There are Angels among us

I would like to share a story of the day my sister passed. I had been staying in her ICU room at night when the rest of the family went to my brothers place to sleep. I couldn’t bare the thought of her passing without one of us there. It was of no logical reason, more for my peace of mind and conscience. After several nights I was wearing down a little. In these situations one doesn’t really sleep, they doze off and on. But, I was doing ok. The last night actually went pretty well. She had no major setbacks that night, no advances either. But things seemed ok. I texted my niece the decent news so that their 60 mile drive in that morning could be as relatively stress free as possible.
  I figured I would go down to the cafeteria and get breakfast and a coffee. When I returned after 30 minutes she was doing well still. Then as I sat there things started falling apart. They had already had her oxygen maxed out, there was little more they could really do. I didn’t want to freak out the rest of the family that was driving in. The roads were incredibly icy and I was always worried someone was going to get in an accident. I texted them to come in as quickly but safely as they could. I think she was just waiting for her kids to get there. She soon left us.
  I was distraught. I didn’t want everyone to see me this way, so I decided to walk outside. I walked for a mile or so and regained my composure as much as I could.
  Here is where the story took a turn. As I’m turning back uphill to go back in the hospital I hear someone calling at me. It was a lady by herself in a wheelchair. Mind you it was 10* out, icy, and just not that pleasant. As I go towards her she yells at me that she is blind and could I help her ? Well sure I could, who wouldn’t ? As I get up to her I see she has no shoes on and her sock covered feet are sitting on the ice and snow. She asks if I have a cigarette. I respond no, I haven’t smoked in a long time. I realize she is already smoking, and she pulls out another smoke. She asks me to light it with her almost consumed butt. I ask about her shoes. She said they stole them in the hospital. I go to put her feet up on the wheelchair foot boards and realize there are none. She said they stole them also. I ask where she is going. She says she’s waiting for a cab to drive her to Nikiski, which is 165 miles away. She asks if I want to come live with her. She caught me offguard with that one and I start to chuckle. She laughs back. Then she tells me she is ex-Navy Seal. And currently in Black Ops. By now she is clearly enjoying this and continues on with more wild tales of all sorts. By now I have quit walking for awhile and am starting to get cold. I tell her I’m going to go in and get her some help. She repeats her offer of cohabitation and chuckles. I get inside, but I’m not sure who I should talk to about helping her. I decide to just go up to the nearest worker, who happened to be the emergency clerk. I tell her the situation and evidently they are already aware. She says they are working on “helping” her. Which I took to mean as they were sending her down the road for observations at Alaska Pyschiatric Institute.
  I get back up to my sisters room to look out the window to see if my new friend was out there freezing to death. She was gone. I felt kind of sad about it. But looking back at the situation I think God sent her down to me as a diversion. I felt less sorry for myself after that. I felt that I would survive.

I doubt there is any real moral to the story. Except for the fact that there many more less fortunate than I. Here I sit on a plane ready to head home to the rest of my family on Christmas Day. Life will never be the same without my little sister, but things could be worse. Merry Christmas to all my Valkyrie friends. Thanks for letting me emote these last few days. It has helped. Thank you all.